At the age of just 19 (and he is only just 19, having had his birthday in January), darts superstar Luke Littler is the world number one and has been to two PDC World Championship finals, winning the most recent. He has set so many records, even at his young age and is sure to set many, many more.
Littler is known for many things, most notably his heavy scoring and fast pace of play, which means that legs and sets can pass by in a blur for opponents. It is perhaps too early to talk about him alongside the game’s GOAT, Phil Taylor. Taylor had incredible longevity, winning 16 world titles, including the PDC 14 times. From the mid 1990s right through to around 2010, he was the dominant force in the game.
Littler has a lot still to prove in terms of maintaining that hunger and desire. However, in terms of the standards he has produced over his career so far, he undoubtedly has the ability to eventually be recognised as one of the greatest darts players ever… if not the absolute greatest. He hits 180s like nobody who has ever played the game, and that allows him to make the Big Fish look like a standard finish.
What Is a Big-Fish Finish?
LITTLER WINS WITH ANOTHER BIG FISH 🤯🤯🤯
Utterly, utterly ridiculous from Luke Littler 😮💨
The World Champion pins his SECOND Big Fish of the final to defeat Michael van Gerwen 6-4 to win in Berlin and move top of the table 👏
📲 https://t.co/gFQK4rQ2wU#PLDarts | Final pic.twitter.com/F4tjsMBdgR
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 26, 2026
In darts, a Big Fish refers to a player winning a leg with treble 20, treble 20 and then bull. It is the highest possible three-dart finish in the sport and one way in which a player can seal a nine-dart leg. “Reeling in” a Big Fish is a great achievement and does not happen all that often – or it didn’t used to.
Nobody is quite certain where the name comes from, although there is the concept of reeling it in. Like a big fish for a fisherman, a 170 finish is a prized and cherished catch. It is widely believed to have derived from the phrase “big finish”, though, which is how the maximum 170 checkout used to be referred to. Big Fish is a sort of shortening of that, and many attribute the phrase to Wayne Mardle, the brilliant darts commentator.
We can’t be certain who used it first, who did most to popularise it or where the name came from. However, there is no doubt that Big Fish is very much a part of the modern darts lexicon and something that fans and players love. And one man in particular hits more than his fair share.
Littler Goes Fishing
As well as his fast play and heavy scoring, Littler is well known for his love of double 10. He is also a player who doesn’t stick to the standard or most obvious finishes. He often gets creative and takes out finishes with combinations that other players don’t. Some examples would be the 150 checkout with a trio of bulls and a crazy 121 finish where he hit bull, treble seven and then bull.
The classical finish in those two situations is treble 20, treble 18 and double 18 (for 150) and treble 20, treble 11 and double 14, respectively. But The Nuke doesn’t always do things the way others do, and he certainly likes to leave himself as many chances as possible of finishing a leg with a Big Fish.
In recent times, he has taken such audacious finishing to a whole new level. On the 26th of March, he was at his best to claim his third Premier League nightly win of 2026, indeed his third in four weeks. That moved him to the top of the table, and he did it in real style too.
Playing in Berlin, Littler averaged over 105 in all three matches. In the final, up against Michael van Gerwen, he took out a 126 finish early on and moved 3-0 up. In the eighth leg, he produced a Big Fish that he had very deliberately set himself up for. And then, incredibly, the young star blasted another maximum finish to seal the match.
His willingness to leave a Big Fish does mean he has more opportunities to reel them in than his rivals. This could be viewed as foolhardiness or even arrogance. However, when he is landing them regularly, it simply looks like supreme confidence allied to a desire to please the crowd.
Stats around Big Fish checkouts are not comprehensive, especially the further back that we go. However, the PDC published some numbers that showed there were 135 Big Fish spread over a massive 12 years of European Tour matches. In the whole of the 2025 Premier League, there were seven, Littler getting two and five others one each.
Littler now has five in the 2026 Premier League already, a truly astonishing stat. We are only halfway through the season, and with his confidence surely sky high, who knows how many he will hit come the final reckoning. Big Fish? Big deal, says The Nuke, who continues to raise the bar in the sport!